Advanced communication exchange services such as the Rich Communications Suite (RCS) were defined with the aim of producing an umbrella of advanced communication services prioritizing the interoperability of services across network owners and handset manufacturers. One of the main services used as part of RCS is enhanced address book (EAB), including service capability and social presence. Social presence was defined by early developers as the “degree of salience of the other person in the interaction and consequent salience of the interpersonal relationships.” As computer-mediated communication has evolved, a inure relational view of social presence has emerged and has come to be viewed as the way individuals represent themselves in their online environment.
Social presence is a status indicator that displays the availability of an individual to engage and connect with other persons in their online community. Social presence indicators can vary from a simplistic red-amber-green colored indication to a complex Session Initiation Protocol for Instant Messaging and Presence Leverage Extensions (SIMPLE) and the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). Social presence indicators provide real-time information regarding the various communication-means that are available to get in touch with their contact such as Instant Messaging services, Social networks, Video calling, file sharing, etc. Such social presence information can be used to stimulate new and impulsive communication interactions.
Social presence is indicated by the user and often cached at a network level for others to easily identify the presence status indicated by the user. Nowadays it is common for an individual to be simultaneously present in two or more networks, via communications, for instance, through his/her smartphone, which may be simultaneously registered in a core network, instant messaging (IM) communities (MSN Gmail™), and Social Networks that manage presence information. However, so far the social presence information has been leveraged only by a restricted group of individuals such as the user's personal contacts.